This invention relates to guide member assemblies for use in cassettes for web-type data carrying material, such as magnetic tape, typewriter ribbon, filmstrip or the like, for guiding the data carrying material along a predetermined path of travel in the cassette.
Various types of cassettes for data carrying material have been proposed. These cassettes are provided with guide pins or rotatable guide member assemblies for smoothly guiding the travel of the data carrying material along a predetermined path in the cassette. Generally, such guide member assemblies comprise guide means in the form of a plastic cylindrical roller body, rotatably supported by a pin formed of metal or other material and one ed of which is embedded in a casing half of the cassette. Lubricant is applied between these elements to provide a smooth rotation of the guide roller body on the pin.
However, a problem which often occurs in conventional mechanisms is that the applied fluid lubricant seeps or leaks from the space between the lower ends of the roller body and pin and runs along the lower end face of the guide roller body whereupon it accumulates on and adheres to the peripheral data carrying material guiding surface of the guide roller body. This in turn results in an adherence of the lubricant to the data carrying material itself which travels into contact with the guiding surface of the guide roller body. This is indeed a serious problem and often results in malfunctioning of the cassette as well as the mechanism in which the cassette is used.